Women's Volleyball

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Endicott closed out an undefeated Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) season on Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 win over Wentworth to claim the 2016 Regular-Season title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming CCC Volleyball Championship Tournament.

The Gulls, which went 9-0 (19-11 overall) in conference play, enter the postseason as the top seed for the first time since 2009. They will host No. 8-seed Curry on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. in a quarterfinal matchup as the Championship Tournament field expands to eight teams this year. This will be the first postseason appearance for Curry in program history. The program began in 2010.

Roger Williams, which had its streak of six straight No. 1 seeds broken, will enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed after finishing 8-1 (19-7 overall) in conference play. One streak that the Hawks hope to continue is their streak of seven consecutive CCC Tournament Championships. Their postseason journey begins with a quarterfinal match against No. 7-seed University of New England.

Western New England earned the No. 3-seed with a 7-2 (19-9 overall) league record and will host No. 6-seed Gordon in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m.

Wentworth earned the No. 4-seed and the last quarterfinal hosting spot by going 5-4 (23-5 overall) in the CCC. The Leopards will host No. 5-seed Salve Regina at 7 p.m.

Salve Regina and Gordon also had 5-4 conference records, so tiebreakers were needed to determine seeding. All three teams were 1-1 in the head-to-head comparison offering no relief in breaking the deadlock. The next step was comparing their results against the other conference opponents in rank order, but the tie remained as they all beat and lost to the same teams. The teams were then evaluated by results against common non-conference opponents. All three teams played Wheaton and Salem State and earned victories. The tie was finally broken in the fourth tiebreaker, winning percentage against all opponents with a .500 or better winning percentage. The Leopards went 7-4 (.636 winning percentage) in those matches compared to Gordon's 4-13 (.235) and Salve Regina's 3-10 (.231).

The procedure began again to break the Salve Regina-Gordon tie with the Seahawks earning the No. 5-seed having defeated Fighting Scots during the regular season.

The four semifinal winners will advance to the semifinal round, which will take place on Thursday, Nov. 3. The winner of the Endicott-Curry match will play the winner of the Wentworth-Salve Regina match and the Roger Williams-UNE winner will play the Western New England-Gordon winner.

The winners of the two semifinals will advance to the CCC Championship match, which is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 5. The CCC Tournament Champion will earn the Conference's automatic bid into the 2016 NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament.